1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to teaching systems and in particular to systems utilizing a variety of media.
2. Description of Prior Art
Despite many advances in technology, students today still rely upon media which was developed circa 1500, the printed textbook. Print books have many disadvantages. Production of print books is costly and print books, due to their size and weight arm difficult to distribute, carry, and store. A print book can only be in one place at one time and often it is forgotten at home and unavailable to the student while attending class.
Medical problems such as scoliosis can be the result of carrying heavy print books to the extent that some school systems have taken action to reduce book transport. Solutions to the problem usually involve the expense of purchasing extra copies of texts for use in school.
School systems must recycle costly print texts from one child to the next. Students may not write in, underline, or annotate texts because they must be reused. Often texts are outdated because of the cost involved in replacing a print book which may require only a few pages of update, albeit important pages.
Print texts, by their nature, are outdated because of the lag between authoring and publication time. This situation has been exacerbated in recent years, because the rate at which new information is being produced and disseminated has increased greatly. Accordingly, textbook use and library research are to some extent being replaced by electronic media, particularly the World Wide Web (Web). Teachers may be aware of new materials on the Web but lack a means for seamlessly integrating this information with many existing texts. Although some texts may refer to web sites, these web site lists quickly become outdated because the Web is not static. Also, because of the inconvenience involved in accessing both a textbook and a PC, students do not have the time or motivation to augment each aspect of every text they receive with multimedia material.
Furthermore, when a student is using a print textbook, the instructor has no way of knowing if the student is absorbing the material, if the student is having difficulty with a particular concept, or has a misunderstanding. The only way for the instructor to determine student difficulty is after the fact, when the student does poorly on a test. If a student is having difficulty with a lesson, the student does not have a private method for communicating with the instructor but must raise his or her hand. xe2x80x9cCalling outxe2x80x9d or simply requesting help is discouraged by most instructors who prefer to control the flow of questions. Students with disabilities such as hearing loss or low vision may find it difficult to talk with the teacher or to use a print book.
The prior art does not disclose an environment which would overcome these educational disadvantages. Systems for communicating with students include U.S. Pat. No. 5,176,520 to Hamilton, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,869 to Ziv-El. The ""520 patent discloses means for instructor and student to share an electronic xe2x80x9csheetxe2x80x9d of paper. The ""869 patent enables student terminals to connect to a teacher""s terminal. Students can access materials on the teacher""s terminal and the teacher can monitor students"" work and respond to questions. However neither system includes links to supplementary material or a xe2x80x9ccallable teaching assistantxe2x80x9d which will identify errors.
Several systems provide electronic books (e-books), for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,888 to Lebby et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,485 to Munyan, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,034 to Sachs et al. However, none of these patents disclose communication between teacher and students pursuing a course of study.
Patents which describe linking multimedia supplementary material, link the material to print text, not electronic text and do not disclose a teacher-student environment with bi-directional communication. For example U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,515 to Igguiden describes a method for augmenting a print text by providing graphical indicia at points in the text indicating that supplementary materials from a host computer are available for download. However, neither a teaching environment nor means for communicating with an instructor are disclosed. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,432 to Jessop discloses linking audiovisual material to print text aligned with pressure sensing means, when the user presses portions of the print material. These supplementary materials must be inserted into the device and are not located on a remote computer. The ""432 patent does not disclose a teaching assistant function, or callable links, and communication is limited to output generated by a pressure sensing means.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,429 to Greer et al. and U.S. Pat. No. ""247 to Richardson et al disclose web-touring systems which guide the user to supplementary material. In the ""247 patent, a web tour stop vector is programmed to direct client systems to specific sites. In the ""429 patent, a teaching web page supplements a source web page, and may include additional information about the source web page. However, neither patent discloses communication with an instructor.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide the student with a portable electronic textbook, connected in a seamless and secure fashion to supplementary materials, for example on the Web or an intranet, whereby the instructor could provide these materials in an individualized and customized manner. Real-time two-way communication between student and instructor would take the form of student initiated immediate help, as well as real-time instructor initiated help. Instructors would have the ability to identify mistakes and to direct students to supplementary material.
The present invention provides a system and method for providing students with a portable electronic textbook which can be connected to network systems. Through arrangements with publishing companies, school districts can license a book for electronic distribution to authorized users. The full text can reside on an intranet or extranet, available for download to a portable computerized device, the NoBook(trademark), when the student supplies an access code. The NoBook student workstation can be connected to the intranet via a docking station, wireless communication, or other means. The instructor is provided with authoring capability such that the instructor can annotate the electronic textbook with links to supplementary multimedia material. Students may access hypermedia material stored locally or on the World Wide Web. The instructor is able to view the student""s real-time performance on exercises and to refer the student to additional material or remedial work. This may be accomplished for example, through screen sharing hardware and software, enabling the instructor to view the student""s screen and/or transmit the instructor""s screen to the student. The student may privately contact the instructor with requests for additional help. This may be accomplished, for example, through a messaging system or by software polling of student workstations.